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What next for Szczesny? Roma admit they have another Keeper for next season

The Polish keeper Wojciech Szczesny’s Arsenal career took a rapid downhill turn last New Year when he committed two howlers to gift three points to Souhampton. That was bad enough but then straight after the game he was caught having a sneaky cigarette in the showers and was subsequently dropped in favour of David Ospina.

Ospina ground his nose in it by producing some fantastic football and registering the best stats of any keeper in the Premier League in the following five months. Szczesny’s future at the Emirates took another tumble when Wenger snapped up Petr Cech as soon as the transfer window opened, and the Pole was left as third choice for this season which meant he needed to go. He also lost his place to Lukasz Fabianski in the Polish national side.

Luckily Roma gave him a lifeline by taking him on loan, and he seemed to be doing okay in Serie A, but he was solely blamed for their 1-0 defeat by Inter Milan a couple of weeks ago.

Now the Roma director of football Walter Sabatini has been asked about whether he wants to keep Szczesny next season, and he sort of sad that he did, but then dropped the bombshell that they already have a replacement lined up. Sabatini said: “We are working on it and would like to keep Szczesny, but knowing Arsenal it will be difficult to achieve that.

“In any case, Roma are already covered in that role for next season. Who did we get? I will never tell you that!”

So does Sabatini want to keep him as a reserve? I doubt if that would please Szczesny…

Szczesny has always made it clear that he never wanted to leave Arsenal, but he has now said that he will decide his future next summer. “My future will be decided after the European Championships,” he was quoted as saying on BT Sport.

“I love Arsenal, but I’m happy at Roma. I know that Roma want me, but I don’t see why Arsenal would not want me also.

“Leaving Arsenal was painful and it was a difficult decision to make. I can’t imagine myself with another English team.”

“Garcia believes in me and so too do my team-mates and the fans,” he added.

“Coming to Rome was the best choice. It’s best being a starter for the runners-up in Italy than sitting on the bench in England. Even Arsene Wenger thought it was the best thing for me.”

I suppose from Woj’s point of view, the ideal situation would be if he returned to Arsenal and Ospina moved away in search of first team football. Maybe, just perhaps, Wenger has already arranged with Sabatini for a swap to happen?

Would anyone want Szczesny to return or should we stick with Ospina as Cech’s backup?